Question about feeding.

[Cheri]

You would think that as long as I have been here I would know this. Foggy and the boys were born around Easter. Can I feed them scratch yet? The grower starter doesn't seem to fill them up. I know the girls need it for a few more months.

 

[justusnak]

Sure, you can give them scratch, in small amounts. They will also need grit of some sort. Mine were born May 10th, and get scratch every night...in moderation of course.

 

[Cheri]

Okey dokey pokey!

And I can buy this grit at the store? Or can I use parakeet grit? They are going to be quarantined for a few days so I thought they should get some treats. The girls love it! They have control over the feed dishes now. Silly girls.

 

[AccidentalFarm]

Cheri, you can feed them anything you (or they, rather) want at this point. Like Justusnak said, they will need grit. You can give them parakeet grit, or what is even easier is to buy a bag of play sand at home depot or lowes, or wherever you can find it. It works fine as grit. You can just leave a dish of it out at all times and they will pick through it and find the bits they want. If you put it in a large enough container (I use a deep rubbermaid tote lid), they will also dust bathe in it.
I have also used sand that DH gets to mix concrete with. I believe he gets it from a quarry nearby. It has larger pieces of sand/rock/etc. in it that I think the bigger birds prefer.

On a side note, I also mix in a few shovelfull's of garden soil with the sand that I put in the tote lid. The girls adore scratching around and bathing in it.

How about some pics of your girls??

 

[Cheri]

As soon as I get a decent camera. I have to quarantine the boys cuz they have chicken pox so I thought I would do that. I have some sand that people gave us to build up wet spots in their yard. Hopefully tomorrow we can finish the yard.